Govt plans to set up IIT campus in Poinguinim

Special Correspondent

Panaji

The permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Technology-Goa may finally be located in Canacona taluka, with the government officials having completed the exercise to identify the location for the same atop the Kulti Plateau, in Poinguinim village, in the southernmost taluka of Goa.

The secretary for education, along with the director for higher education Prasad Lolienkar and other top government officials have completed the inspection of the location.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had last week hinted about allotting a land in Canacona to IIT-Goa.

Earlier, the government had contemplated setting up the IIT-Goa campus on the Bhagwati plateau, in Loliem village, in Canacona taluka. However, the Citizens Committee of Loliem had taken objection to the decision, forcing the government to rethink on the location.

In Survey No 131 on the Kulti Plateau, there exists more than 2 crore sq mts of land, while under Survey No 157 on this plateau there is more than 8 lakh sq mts of land. The Poinguinim Communidade has already taken a decision to allocate a piece of land on the Kulti Plateau, for the permanent campus of the IIT-Goa.

Incidentally, the Konkan Railway route is close to the Kulti Plateau, as also there is a power sub-station nearby. The IIT-Goa requires around 8 lakh sq mts area for its permanent campus.

Incidentally, few years ago representatives of the Poinguinim villages, bordering the Kulti Plateau had submitted a petition signed by over 400 villagers to the Canacona deputy collector seeking his intervention, for permanently closing down the pollution-causing ready mixed concrete and hot-mix batching plants on the eco-sensitive Kulti plateau.

Meanwhile, an official of IIT-Goa informed this daily that the institute has knowledge about the government considering a land in Canacona taluka for the permanent campus.

“We genuinely feel that this time, the government should finalise the land and hand it over for our permanent campus,” the official said, lamenting that for long, IIT-Goa has been functioning from a makeshift campus.